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GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL 



E 475 

uL HEARINGS 

Copy 1 

BEFORE THE 



COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIONS 

SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS 

Second Session 

ON 



H. R. 11112 



A BILL TO ERECT A MEMORIAL ON THE GETTYSBURG 

BATTLE FIELD TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH 

ANNIVERSARY OF THAT BATTLE 



FEBRUARY 18, 1914 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1914 






COxMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY. 

House of Rf;pkesentatives. 

sixty-third congress. 

JAMES I,. SLAYDEN, Texas, Chairman. 
THOMAS C. THACHER, Massachusetts. RICHARD BARTHOLDT, Missouri. 
PETER G. TEN EYCK, New York. JAMES F. BURKE, Pennsylvania. 

Chester Harrison, Clerk. 
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AUG 23 ]S15 



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(lETTYSBT^RG PEACE MEMORIAL 



COMMITTEK OX TIIK LiBRARY, 

Hoi SE OF RErHESENTATIVES, 

IVashinf/tcm, D. C.^ February 18, 19U. 
The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. James L. Slayden 
(chairman) presiding. 

STATEMENT OF HON. SWAGAR SHERLEY, A REPRESENTATIVE 
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 

Mr. Spierley. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 
have introduced H. E. 11112, a bill to create the Gettysburg peace 
memorial commission and authorizing that commission to locate 
the place and erect a memorial on the Gettysburg battle field to 
commemorate the peace celebration on the fiftieth anniversary of 
that battle. The bill reads : 

[H. R. 11112, Sixty-third Congress, second session.] 

A BILL To create the Gettysburg peace memorial commission, charged with the duty 
of locathig the memorial on the Gettysburg battle field to commemorate the fiftieth 
anniversary of that battle July first, second, third, and fourth, nineteen hundred and 
thirteen. 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assemhled. That a commission is hereby created, to be 
known as the Gettysburg peace memorial commission, charged with the duty 
of determining and' procuring a suitable location and the erection thereon of 
an appropriate memorial on the battle field of Gettysburg, to commemorate 
the reunion of the veterans of the Union and Confederate armies on the fiftieth 
anniversary of that battle, July first, second, third, and fourth, nineteen hun- 
dred and thirteen. 

Sec. 2. That in the discharge of its duties the said commission is authorized 
to employ the services of such artists, sculptors, architects, and others as it 
shall deem necessary. 

Sec. 3. That said commission shall consist of the Secretary of War; .Tohn P. 
Nicholson, chairman of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission; 
and Andrew Cowan, Ell Torrance. .John C. Black, and Thomas S. Hopkins, 
representing the Union veterans, and Hilary A. Herbert, William Hodges jMann, 
E. Mclver Law, and A. J. West, representing the Confederate veterans. 

Sec. 4. That whenever a vacancy or vacancies upon said commission shall 
occur such vacancv or vacancies shall be filled by the President of the United 
States. 

Sec. 5. That said commission shall submit an annual report to the Congress 
giving a detailed statement of the work of the commission during the preceding 
year. 

Sec. 6. That the members of said commission shall be paid their actual ex- 
penses incident to the authorized work of the commission. 

Sec. 7. That for the purpose of the erection of the said memorial and the 
expenses incident thereto there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in 
the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $500,000, or so much 
thereof as may be necessary. 

3 



4 GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMORIAL. 

I shall not take much of the time of the conmiittee this morning 
with any statement of my own as there are gentlemen here present 
who can more fittingly and properly express the sentiment that 
actuated them and me in proposing this memorial. However, I 
want to preface what they shall say by this statement. I ap- 
preciate how Congress has been asked in the past to make manj^ 
apjDropriations for many individuals, who, m the opinion of the 
movers of those appropriations, were worthy of being remembered 
by statutes, and history with its ironies has frequently shown that 
the only virtue that those statutes had was to commemorate the zeal 
of particular men rather than the services of the individuals for 
whom they were erected. We do not come, however, in this instance 
asking a statue to a man; but we do believe that it is proper that 
what is unique among the people of the world should be commemo- 
rated, and that is not the Civil War, great and momentous as it was, 
but the peace that followed after that war within the lifetime of the 
participants in the war ; a peace that has been peculiar to our country 
and is the greatest tribute to her institutions of all the things that 
have occurred in her history. It took England more than 200 years 
to get over her civil wars. We at the end of 50 years find that war 
leaving no bitternesses and only the glorious memories of those who 
fought on each side of it. It was with a view to commemorate that 
good feeling that the meeting Avas had on the Gettysburg battle 
field last year, and out of that meeting grew the movement for a 
monument to forever perpetuate the fact, and to myself fell the honor, 
for I consider it an honor, of introducing this bill. 

I know the demands that are put upon this committee. I think I 
know something of the demands that are put upon the Treasury. It 
has been my work very largely for 11 years in Congress to fight to 
hold down expenditures; but there are times when events are more 
important than a ledger account, and I do not think that this matter 
can be or will be considered with regard to expenditures. I wanted 
to say this much, because I think it is proper that at the start it 
should be differentiated from the ordinary bill to erect a memorial 
to an individual. I wish to say this also to the committee. It was 
easily possible to have burdened you gentlemen with a large number 
of communications in favor of this bill, and I could easily have 
crowded this room fivefold over to show the interest of men of both 
the North and the South in this bill and its enactment. Instead of 
that I have asked some of the gentlemen wdio were the prime movers 
in this matter, and wdio in a peculiar way reflect the high sentiment 
that prevades the whole country, to appear before you and very 
briefly express their views, and w^ith this preliminar}^ statement, 
with the permission of the chairman, I will be glad to ask ex-Secre- 
tary Herbert to speak. 

STATEMENT OF HON. HILARY A. HEEBERT, OF WASHING- 
TON, D. C. 

Mr. Heiuiert. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the monument we are 
asking at Gettysburg is not to be a memorial of the battle that was 
fouglit on that field — it is intended to commemorate a peace meeting 
that was held there 50 years after the battle. Fifty-six thousand 
Federal and Confederate veterans, averaging perhaps over 70 years 



GETTYSBUKG PEACE MEMORIAL. O 

old, 9,000 of them Confederates, many of them paying their way 
from distant States, some as far off as Texas, gathered there for 
three days in midsummer to rejoice together that peace had come to 
them and their children. They and the two great armies they repre- 
sented had fought each other on a thousand battlefields; yet now 
they called each other comrades as they talked over those battles. 
They chatted and laughed, and sometimes they embraced and cried 
over each other, as a Federal found the Confederate, or a Con- 
federate found the Federal, who had risked his life to give him a 
cup of water or to drag him out of the range of danger as he lay 
wounded in the line of fire. 

That was, taken altogether, the most wonderful meeting that the 
world has ever seen. We are here, as the representatives of those 
veterans, to ask the Government to build a monument to commemo- 
rate that gathering. Those old gray-haired men knew, and thej'^ felt 
in their hearts, as they recalled the past and looked forward into the 
bright future that awaits their descendants, what that meeting 
meant. If you can be made to visualize all this as they did, I am 
sure you will report in favor of authorizing that monument, and 
that, when Congress comes to consider it, the Congress will say, as 
posterit}'^ will say, that that monument stands for far and away 
more than any memorial Congress has ever appropriated for, save 
and excepting only the monuments to George Washington and Abra- 
ham Lincoln; and of these two monuments this will be the comple- 
ment. The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial leave 
the story of the formation of a perfect Union only two-thirds told. 
If we are to complete that story in stone the monument we ask for 
must be built. It is as essential as the other tAvo. The three taken 
together will tell the tale to our posterity. 

George Washington presided over the convention that framed our 
Constitution. He dreamed of and wrought for an everlasting Union 
of 13 coequal States, then composed of 4.000,000 of people. He died 
full of hope, but left his people wrangling over the question as to 
whether in the last resort the power of a State or the power of the 
Federal Government was supreme. Abraham Lincoln found 31 
States and 30,000,000 of people at war over that same question. He 
dreamed of and labored for his plan for bringing those States back 
into a peaceful and happy Union of coequal States; but President 
Lincoln unfortunately died when his plans were only half completed, 
and this delayed them for many years. 

The meeting of the veterans of the two armies that had fought out 
the issue that was pending when George Washington died and when 
Abraham Lincoln died — that gathering at Gettysburg in July, 1913^ 
was a token, and it was the final and conclusive proof that what 
the monument to Washington and the monument to Lincoln both, 
more than all else, stood for — a perpetual Union of happy and con- 
tented coequal States — had at last been realized. Those veterans at 
Gettysburg last summer went there because ours was now such a 
Union and it had now grown into a Union of 48 coequal States, com- 
posed of 100,000,000 of people, not one of Avhom would have it other- 
wise. All the clouds that had lowered over the house of those assem- 
bled veterans and over the homes of their ancestors had been in the 
deep bosom of the ocean buried, and, our people united now forever, 



6 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMOEIAL. 

those grizzled old veterans were the proud representatives of the 
foremost Nation in the world. It is to mark this that they have 
commissioned us to ask of you a monument on which we suggest there 
shall be inscribed the single word "Peace." But that word,_when 
orators shall expound and historians shall explain it in the future, 
will mean more than that. It will add its crowning glory to the 
Constitution which AVashington helped to frame and under which 
Lincoln sought to reunite our warring States, and that peace monu- 
ment will mark the grave in wliich sectionalism is buried forever. 

When its story is studied the world wdll understand what was in 
the minds of those old veterans at Gettysburg last July. The issues 
that divided them in the past had been settled. Some of those old 
men may have changed their minds about each other and about many 
other things, but none of them in that gathering had ever wavered 
in his love for the Constitution of the fathers. That was what they 
had fought about, that was what they had all fought for. They had 
differed about its meaning. The Southerners had set it up at Rich- 
mond, amended so as to express precisely what they insisted the 
fathers meant, and the Confederacy had fought to the death to main- 
tain it. 

For a time after the close of our dreadful war the seceded States 
had sad experiences, but after a time Anglo-Saxon civilization reas- 
serted itself, the constitutional right of the States to govern them- 
selves was acknowledged by the courts and by the country, and then 
came peace and content. 

The mutual admiration of the courage and patriotism of one an- 
other that began during the Avar between Union and Confederate 
soldiers and has grown ever since^ and that magnanimity which al- 
ways goes with true bravery and wliich has been manifested so often 
and in so many ways, has done much to restore peace and harmony, 
but the restoration in the seceded States of the right to govern them- 
selves has done more than all else, and that is what the monument we 
ask for will tend to perpetuate. If sectionalism is never resurrected 
this will continue to be a Union composed of happy and contented 
self-governing States. How, gentlemen, can you hesitate? 

Your great State of Texas, Mr. Chairman, and my State of Ala- 
bama, were represented at Gettysburg last summer, because those 
States were members of a Union of coequal States. Confederate 
veterans from Texas and Alabama were there, as proud and con- 
tented as were the Union veterans from New York and Ma.ssa- 
chusetts. Our southern people own allegiance to the flag of the 
Union, not as do the people of Alsace and Lorraine to the flag of 
Germany, because the bayonet is over them, but willingly and en- 
thusiastically. It is the Constitution of the United States that has 
been the dominant factor in the make-up of our sectional trouble, 
and when you authorize a peace monument at Gettysburg you will 
be building a monument to that Ccmstitution. you will add more 
glory to what Glad,stone said was the greatest work ever struck oft' 
in a given time by the hand of man. 

Gentlemen of this committee may think they fully appreciate the 
blessings of peace and the horrors of war. They have learned all 
this, they think, from books and by tradition; but oh, if they could 
only recall by memories growing more and more vivid year after 
year the awful realities of the past, as did the grav-haired men who 



GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 7 

met each other last July at Gettysburg — remember their comrades 
stricken down by disease and in battle, widows and orphans at 
home in tears — if they could only recall, as I do, the shriek of a dear 
sister, when I, myself then at home wounded, broke to her as best 
I could the death of her husband — and he was the third of the family 
to fall in battle. If they could remember, as I do at this moment, 
her agonized shriek as she fell speechless to the floor ; if they could 
only recall scenes like this, and then remember that 56,000 men, 
many of them with memories like mine, gathered last summer from 
every State in the Union at Gettysburg, to rejoice that there was to 
be no more war between them and theirs. 

Gentlemen, sectional hostility growing out of our horrible war is 
almost entirely extinct, thank God, but it may be that here and 
there. North and South, an occasional troglodyte, one who has never 
smelt gunpowder, may be disposed to crawl out of his cave and 

chirp about the " d d rebel " or the " d d Yankee." Build 

this monument, and let our countrymen point such a fellow to it and 
say, " The war is over." 

Mr. Chairman, I want to say in conclusion just a word personal to 
myself, and that may smack somewhat of party politics, and I beg 
your pardon for doing it, but I can not but speak what is in my heart. 
I was a soldier in the Confederate Army under Lee. I am proud to 
say that I did my duty fully, to the best of my ability. Then I served 
this Government afterwards for '20 years, and I did my duty as faith- 
fully to the Government of the United States as I had tried to do 
to the Government of the Confederacy. During all my 20 years of 
public service I can proudly say that never at any time did I utter one 
word or do one single thing that would stir up sectional strife, and I 
have never had the opportunity to do anything that would in my 
opinion tend to bring the North and the South closer together that I 
did not do it, I have never since wanted to be a Member of Congress 
until now. I wish now that I were, that I might have the opportunity 
of doing something that would further the bill for this monument, 
which is to stamp with the great seal of the Nation the conclusive 
evidence given by the 56,000 veterans at Gettysburg that this is to 
be a perpetual Union of happy and contented States, all of them 
exercising the right of self-government that was guaranteed by the 
Constitution of the United States. 

I do not see how you can hesitate when you consider the importance 
of this question. It is exceptional. I am a Democrat. I believe in 
the Democratic platform. I believe in economy, but in my opinion 
the public and the Democratic Party will excuse an appropriation 
for this monument, and they will not excuse a failure to do what 
seems to me to be the plain duty of Congress in the premises. 

I thank you, gentlemen, for your attention. 

Mr. SriERLEV. Mr. Chairman, Col. Cowan is the next speaker. 

STATEMENT OF COL. ANDREW COWAN, OF LOUISVILLE, KY. 

Col, Cowan. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, our 
patriotic purpose has been admirably presented by Col, Herbert, 
the president of our association, and only a few words remain to be 
said by others Avho are here. We are men who took part in the 
War between the States, or the Civil War. whichever term mav be 



8 GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMORIAL. 

most appropriate. Some of us fought for the Confederacy and 
some of us fought against it. Col. Herbert had the good fortune to 
serve under Gen. Robert E. Lee. I served under McClellan and Burn- 
side and Hooker and Meade, and I was present at Appomattox when 
the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to the Army of the 
Potomac. The manifestations of fraternal feeling and sympathy 
that were witnessed there it would be pleasant to describe. The bitter 
conditions that followed at the South it would be difficult to account 
for, except through the reconstruction acts which embittered the 
southern people more than the war had done. It has been my for- 
tune to live in Kentucky since the 4th of July, 1866. I should never 
have crossed the Ohio Kiver had I known that such bitterness and 
hatred would confront Union soldiers there. Twenty-five years ago 
the bitter feeling began to weaken. Some of the great Union men 
had already left the State. Thej^ had welcomed the Confederates 
that returned home to Kentucky and those who came from other 
Southern States seeking homes. 

Politics soon separated them again, and there was no peace in 
Kentuck}^ When the tide began to turn after many unhappy years 
one of the first to promote social peace was Mr. Henry AVatterson, a 
Confederate soldier. Last October the annual reunion of the So- 
ciety of the Army of the Potomac Avas held at Ogdensburg, N. Y. 
One of the speakers before the great audience that filled the opera 
house was Capt. John H. Leathers, of the Second Virginia Infantry, 
who was' wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg. Gen. Horatio C. 
King, the secretary of the society, and I, its president, requested 
him to Avear his U. C. V. uniform. His patriotic speech was received 
with great applause. When the report of the proceedings was pub- 
lished I sent a copy to Mr. Watterson, who is in Europe, and received 
a letter from him in which he said : 

I read the little volimie tlirough and both laughed and cried for joy. It 
especially rejoiced my heart to follow you and Capt. Leathers through the 
meeting and to mark what you said and did. My dream of peace has now come 
true and will be graven in granite and bronze when the Gettysburg peace 
monument is completetl and dedicated. To that end I am writing by this mail 
to Mr. Slayden, ohairmau of the Library Committee, an old friend. 

We had very serious political trouble in Kentucky through a con- 
test between Gov. Taylor and Senator Goebel for the office of gov- 
ernor. After the assassination of Senator Goebel the Taylor militia 
were formed on one side of Railroad Street at Frankfort and the 
Beckham militia were on the opposite side of the same street. 

Gen. Basil W. Duke, one of the greatest soldiers of the Confed- 
eracy, who had espoused the Taylor side of the controversy, came 
to see me at Louisville one da}'^ and said, " Col. Cowan, they are 
about to fight at Frankfort. I wish that you would see Gen. Castle- 
man and request him to restrain the Beckham militia force that he 
commands." 

I replied, " Gen. Castleman is your compatriot and friend, and a 
man whom we both respect. Let us go together to see him." We 
told Gen. Castleman that an agreement or understanding had been 
effected between leaders of both sides that there should be no attempt 
to throw Gov. Taylor out of the executive building until the court 
of last resort had settled the question. Gen. Castleman replied, " I 
will go to Frankfort bv the first train and there shall be no resort 



GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 9 

to arms, at least until the courts have settled this contest." A day 
or two later Gov. Taylor came down to request me to go to Wash- 
ington and ask President McKinley what the Federal Government 
would do if there was civil war in Kentucky. 

I said, " It is useless for me to go to Washington to ask that ques- 
tion of President McKinley, for I am sure that he will answer that 
nothing will be done." But Gov. Taylor insisted, and I came here. 
A meeting had been arranged for by Mr. Sam Eoberts, of Lexington, 
and we were received by the President in the Cabinet room. I 
asked the question as Gov. Taylor had requested me to do, and the 
answer was as I had expected. I then started to retire, but the 
President said, " Sit down, please, I want to talk with you." He 
spoke for a few minutes about the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 
1864, in which he had been engaged in the Eighth Corps and I in 
the Sixth Corps. Then he began to talk about the unfortunate 
conditions, political and social, that existed in the South, between 
men from the North who had gone there since the war and men of 
the South whose homes had been there since before the war. He 
said to me very earnestly, that if he could bring about a change of 
sentiment so that we might live in peace and harmony together he 
would consider it the greatest achievement of his life. I made a 
move to v/ithdraw, because I saw that members of the Cabinet had 
come into the room, but he detained me by placing his hand over 
mine, finally saying. " We must have peace." 

He mentioned that in the War with Spain he had welcomed back 
to the military service such southern soldiers as Gen. Fitzhugh Lee 
and Gen. Joe Wheeler, and that he had issued military commissions 
to many other loyal Confederate soldiers who sought to serve the 
country. 

That conversation with President McKinley brought the matter 
of peace between North and South more closely to me than it had 
been befcn-e. AYhen the Grand Army of the Eepublic accepted the 
invitation, which was extended by Mr. Watterson, to come to Louis- 
ville in 189.5, we were anxious that they should receive a welcome 
worthy of old Kentucky. We wanted for chairman of our committee 
one who was " to the manor born," a man noted for southern hospi- 
tality; so Mr. Thomas H. Sherley, the father of our distinguished 
Representative, was asked to be the chairman, and he accepted our 
invitation. The Grand Army of the Republic was entertained in 
Louisville as well as they have been entertained anywhere else. That 
was the first invitation they had received from the South. Tt broke 
down a wall of prejudice and started a feeling of good will that has 
been growing ever since. 

When the United Confederate Veterans came to Louisville for the 
first time I was asked to serve as chairman of the committee on enter- 
tainment of general officers. When they came the second time I was 
requested to repeat my services, which I gladly did. I was greatly 
surprised, though, on the second day of that Confederate meeting, 
when I was called into a room at the Pendennis Club, where Gen. 
Duke, on behalf of tlie Confederates, presented me with a silver 
loving cup. Gen. Duke, of Kentucky, is admired as a soldier and a 
gentleman wherever he is known, and those who know him well love 
him best. He said of me, " Col. Cowan, after I came to live in Louis- 



10 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 

ville I had an idea that such a bhick Kepublican as you grew horns 
under your hat. Since then we Confederates have found out that 
you are a better man than we thought, and you have Avon our esteem, 
like many others of our former foes wlio came liere from the Xorth." 
The sentiment of peace and good will betAveen the men who wore 
the blue and the men who Avore the gray is becoming universal, both 
North and South. At Gettysl)urg, last July, Goa'. McCreary. of 
Kentucky, and Gen. Young, the commander in chief of the United 
Confederate Veterans, occupied tAvo of the five rooms at the Eagle 
Hotel which I had reserved for my friends three years before. Capt. 
John If. Leathers, of the Second Virginia Eegiment, and Capt. 
George C. Norton, of the Eighth Georgia Kegiment. occupied another 
of the rooms. Maj. John B. I^irtle, Avho Avas a distinguished staff 
officer of the Confederate Army, and Adj. Gen. Ellis, of Kentucky, 
occupied another. 

"We had come from Kentucky to Gettysburg feeling apprehensiA^e 
of trouble. It Avas known that large numbers of Confederates Avere 
coming from every Southern State, and we feared that there might 
be unpleasant differences, at least. betAveen the blue and gray. But 
with 45,000 of the northern armies and 9,000 of the men Avho fought 
for the Confederacy in camp together only manifestations of friend- 
ship and affection Avere seen in the camp and on the roads and in 
the streets of the town. A man in gray could hardly Avalk the length 
of a block without being stopped several times to be taken by the 
hand or embraced by men in blue; and the Avonderful reunion ended 
with all hearts filled Avitli gratitude; because it meant, as Ave old men 
knoAv, that here at last Avas a great public manifestation of peace and 
good Avill betAveen the men of the North and the men of the South, 
marking the end of bitterness and the beginning of an epoch in the 
history of our reunited country. 

The Pennsylvania commission had expected to celebrate the Fourth 
of July as natiomil dav. The battle had ended on the 3d of July, 
18G8. 'The Fourth of July. 1913. Avas to be dedicated to the celebra- 
tion of peace and good Avill. It Avas part of the program for the day 
to lay the corner stone of a monument that should mark the celebra- 
tion of the fiftieth anniA'ersary of the battle. When it became neces- 
sary to change the program tluit feature became impracticable. But 
some of us who deeply felt that the celebration of the fiftieth anni- 
versary of the battle Avould not be complete Avithout a permanent 
record beiug placed on the battlefield to commemorate the AvonderfuI 
fraternal meetiug that had taken place there undertook to form the 
Gettysburg Peace Memorial Association for the purely patriotic pur- 
pose of erecting a peace monument on the battlefield to stand for all 
time as a memorial of that wonderful eA^ent — the reconciliation of our 
people North and South after the lapse of only 50 years since they 
had fought through the fratricidal Avar. 

The (piestion may be asked. Wliy sliould Ave commemorate the 
event Avith a monument? Because, gentlemen, nothing like that 
fraternal meeting had ever been seen in the history of the world. I 
believe that Avithout such a jiermanent memorial the significance of 
the event may be lost for future generations. That reunion com- 
manded the attention of the civilized Avorld. All the Avorld Avondered 
that Ave could have settled our differences and become friends in the 



GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 11 

brief space of 50 years. In England 250 years had not obliterated 
the bitterness of a civil war, as but 50 years has done with our people. 

I haAe read JNIr. Bryce's recent book on South America. He re- 
lates that he climbed from the tunnel that pierces the mountain 1,500 
feet below, to the top of the Andes, to see " the Christ of the Andes," 
a bronze statue of more than twice life-size, standing on a stone 
pedestal, rough hewn from the natural rock of the mountain. Ar- 
gentina and Chile, of kindred people, had been at enmity, and on 
several occasions were close to war over the question of a boundary 
line between the two countries along the top of the Andes. They 
finally agreed to submit the dispute to the arbitrament of Queen 
Victoria. After years of careful inquiry a boundary line was drawn 
which was acceptable to both Argentina and Chile. In recognition 
of that peaceful settlement of their dispute, the two countries cast 
this colossal figure out of the metal of cannon and placed it on the 
top of the Andes, as a "monument of peace and good will, to be an 
everlasting witness between them." 

We Avould have our country, now united in peace, place on the 
battle field of Gettysburg a monument that shall bear on its front 
simi^ly the word " Peace," and on its back a bronze tablet bearing 
the legend of the reunion on the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, 
1913, when more than 54,000 surviving wearers of the blue and gray 
in our fratricidal war met together in peace and good will. If we 
should undertake to raise the money to erect the monument by pri- 
vate subscription, it might be done, but the glory of it would be los^. 
The name of no man sliall be honored by that monument. Neither 
is it a monument to glorify war or valor. It will stand to com- 
memorate peace, and be " an everlasting witness between us." We 
believe that our country, which is more firmly united than it had 
been since the Declaration of Independence or the adoption of the 
Constitution, up to the war between the States, should erect the peace 
memorial. 

Now, permit me to read the last words of President Lincoln's first 
inaugural : 

We are nol' enemies, hut friends. We iiui.st not he enemies. Tlionsli passion 
may have strained, it nuist n.ot break our bonds of affection. The mystic 
chords of memory, stretching from every battle field and patriot grave, to 
evei'y living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the 
chorus of tlie Union when again touched, as surely they will be. by the better 
angels of our nature. 

We traveled a long and sorrowful way after those words were 
spoken here hy that great American before Ave ceased to be enemies. 
We have become friends, and in that reunion at Gettysburg last 
July, where all were accounted patriots, surelv " the mystic chords 
of memory, stretching from every battle field and pariot grave," 
united us again in love for the Union and in the bonds of enduring 
peace. The opportunity to commemorate that wonderful event by 
erecting a noble monument to stand forever as a beacon light of 
patriotism for the inspiration of generations yet unborn must not be 
lost. We a])peal to you, gentlemen of the Library Committee, to 
report the bill favorably : and we rely on the ability of Mr. Sherley, 
its author, and the patriotism of Congress, for its pa.ssage unani- 
mously. 



12 GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMOKIAL. 

STATEMENT OF CORP. JAMES TANNER, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Mr. Tanner. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the 
first thought in my mind is to give my indorsement, feeble though it 
may be, to what our friend Sherley said about the volume of indorse- 
ments of this proposition that could be filed here if that were de- 
sirable. 

As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and once its 
commander in chief. I have no hesitancy in saying to j^ou that we 
could contribute to that number of indorsements most earnest resolu- 
tions from all of the o^er 6,000 posts numbered in its membership. 
As an honorary life member of Lee Camp No. 1, Confederate Vet- 
erance, of Eichmond, Va., for 30 years, I have no doubt that every 
Confederate camp in the South would present the same indorsement. 

Our friend Herbert felt impelled to make a statement, personal to 
himself, at the close of his remarks. If it were desirable that my 
insignificant personalitj^ should be known to this committee, I would 
simply have to say that as a New York boy I did what I could to 
help save the Union, served from Yorktown to the second Bull Run, 
where I was mustered out by a section of Stonewall's artillery, neces- 
sitating the amputation of both legs on the battle field and twice since 
in later years. 

I mention this to show you I have had my full shai-e of the physi- 
cal agony that comes to us who gave blood and limb and almost life 
to the cause. But. at the same time, I wish to say, with all possible 
pride, that from the day of Appomattox my voice and whatever in- 
fluence I have had has been exerted for the utmost peace and unity 
between the two great sections. In 1877, during my second year's 
command of the Grand Army of New York, I took advantage of my 
position to put out an order to all the posts in that department calling 
upon them, when we went out on Memorial Day, to pass by no Con- 
federate grave unnoticed from Montauk Point to Buffalo, and they 
responded inianimously. I had the pleasure while living in Brook- 
lyn to send down a draft for over $1,600 to our friends in Richmond 
telling them Ave wanted to own a few bricks in their new Confed- 
erate home. 

Now, then, you gentlemen of this committee, you are younger men 
than we who stood up against one another and gave and took hard 
blows in the long ago, you must remember that we lived when on 
both sides great drafts were drawn upon us — drafts that could only 
be paid in service, in blood and suffering and in life, and we honored 
every draft from both sides, and we are proud of it. There was a 
mighty misunderstanding between the two sections, and I want to 
say to you, because you are younger men, what I said long years ago, 
that when the war closed no two classes of men in this Nation were as 
near together as the men in blue and the men in gray, not only physi- 
cally but mentally, and if we had only known our power and met the 
crisis we would have gotten together on some political basis where 
we coidd have united, and would have escaped the shame and dis- 
grace of the reconstruction, carpetbag days, and the Ku-Klux Klan 
would never have been born. 

Now, we present a spectacle unique in the history of the world, 
which was voiced by the other gentlemen who have spoken. But it 
can not be impressed upon your minds too earnestly. Men who had 



GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMOEIAL. 13 

jumped at each other's throats came together 50 years afterwards, 
as they did Last summer. For what? To justify "by their presence 
and by their greeting the mighty respect that grows up in the heart 
of evei7 man for those who gave their lives for their country. As 
Col. Herbert mentioned politics, let me say, from the other side of the 
line, that 1 always had a great deal more respect for the man of the 
South, born and brought up to believe in the doctrine of States' 
rights, as he believed in his mother's God, who took his life in his 
hands and went out — I had a thousand times more respect for him 
than I did for the sneaking copperhead who yelled himself hoarse 
crying, " Why don't the Army move ? " and " On to Richmond ! " but 
who, when Father Abraham called, through the channels of the 
draft, you would find with a draft list in one hand and a time-table 
of the nearest route to Canada in the other, ready to jump across 
the border if he found his name among the chosen. And what do we 
ask? Things go by ratios, and it seems to me that as we have nearly 
one hundred millions of people in this Nation, what we come and 
ask so earnestly of you is a contribution pro rata of half a cent 
apiece from each one under the American flag. 

I wish, if this measure prevails and this memorial be erected, a 
hundred years from now I could mingle, in the spirit at least, with 
those who will then be occupying the walks of life here and hear 
their inquiries and the answers that will be given when the question 
is asked, " What does this mean ? " and the story is told, as it will 
then have gone down through the corridors of time, after a hundred 
years, of the mighty tragedy witnessed on that battlefield in 1863, 
when, at the close of those three awful days, some 40,000 men lay 
there dead or wounded, and then how 50 years afterwards came 
the survivors, with love and affection in the hearts of all, everyone 
proud of being under the same flag, the Nation a big and mighty 
Nation — not as it was in the sixties, a fourth-rate power, but in the 
front rank, the front seat being occupied by Uncle Sam in the par- 
liament of nations — and Americanism a power extending around the 
globe. You ought as a privilege in this matter take a position that 
your descendants will be proud of and that you will glory in. This 
memorial — nothing like it on God's earth — should be an object lesson 
that will carry to the world at large a knowledge, not only of the 
splendid valor of Americans, North and South, but teaching also the 
lesson of the generosity of their feelings, their brotherly love, and 
the chivalry of their hearts. The question is unlimited, the argument 
unanswerable. 

But do not delay because of the fact that in round numbers it will 
cost half a million dollars. That sounds little to us who paid the 
drafts I spoke of in blood and in suffering and the draft which so 
many of our comrades have paid with their lives, making the supreme 
sacrifice. 

We ask this not in a sectional spirit. Here in this room are men 
who stood against one another on that field, as they stood against 
each other on other fields. But here we come with a unity of purpose 
which, it seems to me, permeates the hearts of all, anticipating as we 
do that you will do your part toward writing this most illuminating 
page of American history. I thank you. 



14 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 

STATEMENT OF GEN. HORATIO C. KING, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

Gen. Kino. jNIr, Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, after 
all that has been said so eloquently, it seems to me quite superfluous 
for me to attemi^t to add anything, except to say amen to everything 
that has been said. We are sometimes confronted with the statement 
that there is too much sentiment, but we should thank God that at 
this age, living as we are in the midst of industrial activity, senti- 
ment is coming to the front and that we are j^ermitted to express 
these sentiments in such a way as this. No more imi)()rtant matter, it 
seems to me, could be presented to this or any congress than the im- 
portance of erecting this great peace monument as a perpetual monu- 
ment for future generations. 

Instead of taking up your time with any remarks of my own, I am 
requested to read a few lines from Gen. Andrew J. West, of Atlanta, 
Ga., who was here on Monday, but who was called home by a 
domestic difficulty. I believe there is to be a wedding in the family 
to-night, and he had to go home to act as usher. [Laughter.] The 
letter of Gen. AVest is addressed to Chairman Slayden, and is as 
follows : 

Washington, D. C, Fchntnnj 16, 191). 
Hon. Jamks L. Slayden. Clniinnan: 

I cjtme from my home in Atlanta, Ga.. to appear before yonr honorable com- 
mittee on Monday, the IGth, in behalf of our Sonthern people pertaining to the 
bill Ixfore your honorable committee to erect a peace memorial on the battle 
field of Gcttysburj;, but as I Ciin not remain to appear in i»erson, I most re- 
spectfully reipiest that my remarlvs be reid before your honorable committee. 

The Confederate soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia never cheered 
Gen. liee when he api)eared uiion the field of buttle or on tlie march or in the 
bivouac, but would lalse their old worn-out hats in silent admiration. This 
rule, however, was broken when a private soldier in the Thirty-fifth Georgia 
Regiment, when that command was entering the Battle of Gettysburg, saw 
Gen. Lee mounted on Traveler. He stei)i)ed to the front, raised his faded cap, 
gave the rebel yell, and said, " Boys, there sit 10.000 men on one horse." We 
are here to-day to invoke your friendly cooperation in passing a bill that will 
enable us to erect a monument of peace on the battle field of Gettysburg, a 
monument ])ersonifying no ptirticular man. living or dead, but ;i peace oft'ering, 
designed .and erected with the primary object of perpetuating forever the 
restorution of brotherly feeling that was proven (m tliat field in .July hist when 
50,000 soldiers, survivors of two armies c()mi)risiiig 4,000,000 of Americans told 
to the world (hat this indeed is a reunited country. 

We ask this in behalf of the gallant Union soldiers who fouglit with our 
distinguished friend, Col. Andrew Cowan, at the higli-water mark on the bat- 
tle field of Gettysburg. We ask this in behalf of the survivors of G<.m. (Jrant's 
Army, who, at Api)omattox extended such liberal terms to the southern sol- 
diers as to win their respect and admiration. We ask it in behalf of the spirit 
that actuated Gen. Grant when, after the war, the arrest of Gen. Lee and the 
violation of (he parole at Appomattox was threatened, Gen. Grant told the 
country that If tlrs should be attem])ted he would resign his i>osition as com- 
mander of the Aiany and a])peal to the people. We ask it in the same spirit 
that ran through Gen. Grant's heart when he uttered the imperishable words, 
" T.,et us have i)eace." We ask it in behalf of the Confetler.ite soldiers who wove 
the music of the Battle of Seven Pines into laurel wreaths for Joseph E. John- 
ston and caused the waters of the Chickaniauga to murmur eternally the name 
of Braxton Bragg. The smoke from the chinmeys of these increasing factories 
will continue to blacken the sky. These great railroads, whose trains go 
rushing through this beautiful iirosperous country, will bear their burden of 
valuable freights and precious lives. The hills and valleys in Pennsylvania 
and Georgia will glow in the garniture of a richer harvest and the remnant of 
lives spared in the battle have been woven in the texture of the Union. New 
stars are clustering upon the flag and the sons of Georgia and Pennsylvania 
are bearing it in the far-off Philippine Islands as their fathers bore it at 



GETTYSBUR(i PEACE MEMORIAL. 15 

Cliurubiiseo niul Cerro (iordo that the hounds of freedom nmy he \vi(h'r stMI. Our 
great race will meet au<l solve every (luestion. however dark, that confronts it. 
We ask this in hehalf of the present {jjeneration, who will say to our present 
race thr.t this indeed is a reunited country — a country that arches the conti- 
neuf, against whose sides tlie waves of hoth fK-eaus meet, and on whose dome 
rests the clouds, and heneath whose canopy is to he found this I)eautiful city — 
the capital of the si'eatest nation under the sun — a moniuuent to which we can 
point with pride and say to the generations yet unborn. " Come on and he glad, 
there is room enough for all." 

Andhkw .T. West. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN LAMB, OF EICHMOND, VA. 

Mr. Lamk. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee. I do 
not think there is any necessity lor me to say much after all the 
eloquence we have listened to this morning. I suppose nobody who 
will address you to-day can more sympathize with the connnittee 
than I can. For 12 years I was a member <^)f the Agriculture Com- 
mittee, and as your chairman knows, for four years the chairman of 
that committee, and I can a])preciate your feelings, gentlemen, when 
jou are asked to make this appropriaticm. The point between appro- 
priations for monuments to individuals and a great cbject lesson like 
this was well pointed out by my former colleague and friend. Mr. 
Sherley. 

Xow, I am satisfied you want to know only two things about this 
proposition: Whether it has behind it a sentiment that will com- 
mand the confidence of Congress and the approval of your con- 
sciences on the one hand and whether any good will result on the 
other. "What is the merit in this proposition? 

NoAv, on the first point there stands behind you 165 survivors of 
the w^ar who wore the gray and 448 survivors of the (irand Army of 
the Ivepublic by whose deeds of valor we southern soldiers can 
Avell measure our manhood and chivalry. Then 600.000 people, 
members and survivors of these two armies, have united almost 
to a man in a request that you grant this legislation. They and their 
fi-iends in their respective counties and States will increase the num- 
ber to four millions or five millions of people who believe that the 
erectioij of this peace monument to commemorate the gathering, 50 
years after the war. of these representatives of these two armies is 
a fitting and proper thing to do, and this is an object worthy of your 
consideration and demands your careful and ]:)atient thought. One 
can scarcel}^ believe, gentlemen, that of the 140,000 or more men who 
came from Virginia and participated in this war but 18,000_ survive 
to-day. Every one of their camps have indorsed this project and 
written to their Congressmen here to give it consideration. I think 
they have letters from every camp indorsing this proposition. 

Virginia is a monumental State. Richmond is a monumental city, 
and I thought, when my friend referred to the Washington INIonu- 
ment, that Virginia contributed nearly as much money as you are 
asked to contribute here to erect in Richmond one of the finest monu- 
ments in the world. I understand it is the second of its class in the 
world, and she did this, too, when she was burdened with debt and 
when she was trying to advance the internal improvements in her 
own State, and slie is paying the interest on that debt to-day. In 
Richmond vou will find another monument worthy of mention to 



16 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 

that peerless leader, Robert E. Lee, which you gentlemen, when you 
visit us, will admire ; and another, representing the chivalry of Vir- 
ginia, to J. E. B. Stuart. 

So 3'ou see in representing Virginia here. Gen. Brown and myself 
have behind ns the sentiment and the feelings of the people of the 
State of Virginia, a State that knows what war is, because in the 
space of 85 years she was SAvept by three horrid Avars, and she had 
scarcely recovered from the material losses of the Revolutionary War 
before this unfortunate conflict of the Civil War was upon her. 

In addition to this, the great empire State of Texas, so well and 
ably rej^resented by the chaiinian of this committee, who came with 
me to the Fifty-fifth Congress, has 24,000 survivors. Texas comes 
first in the number of survivors, and Virginia comes next in the list 
of surviving Confederates, and the Texas camps and the people rep- 
resented through those camps ask you to give this appropriation, and, 
I think, while I am acquainted with the conservatism and the thought- 
ful action alwa3^s of my friend, the chairman of this committee, that 
he will earnestly and patiently and thoughtfully consider the appli- 
cation of these camps, representing as they do 24,000 Confederate 
soldiers still residing in Texas. 

Mr. Slayden. Will my friend from Virginia permit me to inter- 
rupt him with a brief statement there ? 

Mr. Lamb. Certainly. 

Mr. Slayden. It is true there are 24,000 survivors now in Texas. 
As Capt. Lamb knows, though some of you gentlemen may not, at 
least 7 out of every 10 of the ex-Confederate soldiers in Texas 
are immigrants from the old Southern States. They have come 
to Texas since the war. 

Mr. Lamb. My friend has simply anticipated me. I intended to 
say that out of those 24,000, 7,000 or 8,000 or more had gone from 
other States and settled in Texas. 

Mr. Slayden. Two-thirds of them. 

Mr. Lamb. But aside from that, there is a spirit that calls for this, 
and this proposition has been pervading the minds of the people 
in this country for the past 20 years, and let me say that I believe 
this spirit of unity of purpose and thought and action on the part 
of the people of these respective States was set in motion and, per- 
haps, the seed soAvn by no less a man and statesman and patriot than 
William McKinley. I know it by his utterances in the South. I 
Imow it from conversations I held with him during the debates in 
this House when we were debating whether or not we should declare 
war against Spain. I recollect saying to him that the soldiers in 
Congress — and there were then 67 survivors of the Union Army 
and 32 of the Confederate — that they were against that war, and 
that the men who brought that unfortunate and unnecessary war on 
were the young men of 45 or thereabouts who were born when their 
fathers fought in the Civil War. They were for that war, and he 
smiled when I made that suggestion. Not long ago in a friendly 
debate in a camp, of which my friend here, Corpl. Tanner, is an 
honorary member, it developed that the largest subscriber, perhaps, 
personally, to the abbey in Richmond was President McKinley and 
members of his Cabinet. 

NoAv, to show you that this spirit which we invoke for the argu- 
ment we make here for your support of this proposition has a lodg- 



GETTYSBUBG PEACE MEMORIAL. 17 

ment in the minds and hearts of the people scattered all ox'er this 
country, in every Commonwealth, perhaps, in the Union, let me, 
if I may have the time — and I hope I am not trespassing, because 
I only intended to occupy fi^e minutes, and I suppose I am getting 
a little out of the line — show you how that spirit was voiced in the 
Sixty-second Congress, when the Lincoln Memorial came up. which 
was spoken of so well by the first speaker, Hon. Hilary Herbert. 
On that occasion Mr. Mann said : 

Mr. Speaker, it is now nearlj- half a century since the Civil War closed and 
Abraham Lincoln passed beyond. There has been a lapse of time which ought 
to permit us to survey the situation with little bias and little passion. I have 
put the Civil War behind me, a great conflict which was probably inevitable. 
There were patriots on both sides, gallant men in opposition, but the question 
of the Union was settled with the end of the war. and no one now would reopen 
the controverted question so bitterly contested before and during that war. I 
think we can well afford to do that which show.s that the country is again a 
reunited country, with the passions of war passed by, if not forgotten. I would 
erect a memorial to Abraham Lincoln on the farther side of the Washington 
Monument, .inst this side of the Potomac River, across the river from the home 
of Robert E. Lee and the burial place of both Union and Confederate soldiers, 
and then I would erect a memorial bridge across that Potomac River, joining 
the then Confederate States with the Union, aye. Mr. Speaker, joining the 
memory of Abraham Lincoln with the memories and respect for Lee. Aye, Mr. 
Speaker. I would go further. In the course of years not far distant I would 
construct a roadway from Washington to Mount Vernon, from Mount Vernon 
to Richmond, and at the other end of that roadway have the Government of 
the United States construct a memorial to Jefferson Davis, the President of the 
Confederate States. [Applause.] 

When we have done that we have shown to the world that the hearts of all 
Americans beat in the present as in the past with respect and love for their 
leaders on both sides. We can afford to forget the animosities and the passions 
in the peace that passeth all understanding. [Applause.] 

Now, gentlemen, if my friend and colleague, whom I admire, had 
given expression to those utterances 10 years ago he would most 
likely have been retired to private life. That shows you the spirit 
of unity of purpose and friendship between the people— not the 
soldiers so much — but the people representing the public sentiment 
of this countr3^ All of us laiow^ — and it was expressed so well by 
Corpl. Tanner that I need hardly refer to it — that if these differences 
had been left to the soldiers of the respective armies after Appo- 
mattox there never would have been any trouble, and this peace con- 
ference at Gettysburg gave the survivors of the Union Army an 
insight into the character and feelings of the Confederate soldiers 
along that line that they never had before, and their letters to Lee 
Camp, in Richmond, which meets every Friday night, shows that 
they are awakening to a different conception of that war. 

NoAv, gentlemen, let me close with just a word or two more. There 
is a beautiful German legend telling of tAvo mailed knights that were 
approaching each other from opposite points and in front of an 
obelisk on one side of which Avas engraved a gold shield and on the- 
other side a silver shield. The one knight remarked, " That is a 
beautiful gold shield that covers that shaft." "Why." the other 
said, " it is not gold at all : it is sih^er," and they fell into a dispute- 
and finally got to fighting and fell on opposite sides to find that both 
were riglit. The philosophical historian of the future will declare- 
that in this country 50 years ago both sides Avere right. No on^ 

32074—14 2 



18 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMOEIAL. 

denies, or ever has, that the South was right in the strict construc- 
tion of the Constitution, and that from a changed public sentiment 
and the general welfare of man the Union side was right. The good 
that wilt come from this jn-oject will be in the fact that the dedica- 
tion of this monument to peace will be a guaranty that war shall 
cease in the future. So when future troubles come, as come they 
will, notwithstanding my good friend BarthokU. a member of this 
committee whom 1 had hoped Avould be here to-day and whose voice 
for peace has been heard on two continents, said the United States 
would never have any more war. I hope he is right about that. 
But with human nature constituted as it is and with the diversity of 
interests in this country, the millenium will have to come to prevent 
some strife at times. This monument to teach the coming genera- 
tions the accumulated horrors of war will certainly be an object les- 
son for those who shall follow us. Gentlemen, I thank you. 

STATEMENT OF COL. THOMAS S. HOPKINS, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Col. Hopkins. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 
want to say to you — and you may be somewhat surprised at the 
statement — that probably I am the best friend of the committee here 
in this room. You do not know. Mr. Chairman, how I have stood 
between you and thousands of letter writers. I have written and 
telegraphed all over this country asking comrades Xorth and South 
not to write any more letters to this committee. I thought possibly 
3'ou might appreciate this. 

Mr. Slayden. I am glad to hear that, because that matter works 
both ways. Receiving many letters necessarily involves writing 
many. 

Col. Hoi'KiNs. I wi.sh simply to present a letter of two typewritten 
pages from Judge Toi-rance, of JNInineapolis. one of the most distin- 
guished membei-s of the (irand Army of the Republic and a past 
commander in chief. 

(The letter referred to is as follows:) 

To the COMMITTEK ON THK I>1BKARY : 

(iENTLKMKX : Tlio (listMiue troiii Minneapolis to Wasliington is so great that 
it i)recln(l<'s nie from .utpeiivins in person before you in support of the bill now 
under consideration for llie erection of a peace memorial at Gettysbur.sc. How- 
ever, with your jtermission. I desire to submit the following; statement for your 
consideration: 

From the time the ol»servanee of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of 
fJettysburg was inanirurjited in 1909 the up])erniost thought in the minds of 
those identified with it was the erection of a peace memorial — a memorial 
typifying national jieace and brotherhood and a reunited people. We hoped 
that tlie corner stone of such ;i memorial miglit l)e laid during the celebration 
;uid in the presence of many of the surviving veterans of that great conflict. 
This was not done, and under the circumstances could not be done; but the 
desire for its aceomi>lishment was eminently praiseworthy, and the fact that it 
had its birth in the hearts of those who had experienced the horrors of war 
«nd who. j)erhaps as no others could realize the blessedness of peace shoidd, 
I iim sure, strongly ajipeal to you, and be safely relied upon as voicing a deep 
and sacred sentiment tli;U shonld i)ermeate the lives of our people. 

Many moiunnents. reitresenting l>attle scenes and military leaders, have 
been ei-ecttnl. but something more is required for the saving health of the Nation. 
The peii)et nation of the tragic story of the valley of death, made luminous by 
the dying devotion of heroic souls, is not enough. It is of vital importance 
that a memorial should l)c erected, overshadowing all others, that will testify 
lo the gi-eater glory of a reunited country: of the consignment to tlie grave 



GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 19 

of oblivion of old time hatreds, prejudices, and misunderstandings; and the 
establishment of peace and good will throughout all our borders. 

As the official representative of tlie surviving veterans who wore* the blue, 
and as one whose esteem and affection for the surviving veterans who wore the 
gray is little less than that for his own comrades. I earnestly ask your com- 
mittee to grant our request, not for our own sake but for the compelling and 
ennobling lessons it will forever teach to the American people. 

Ell Toerance, 
Chairnian Rational Committee Grand Army of the Republic. 

STATEMENT OF HON. SWAGAR SHERLEY, A REPRESENTATIVE 
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 

Mr. Sherley. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 
only desire to say that the form of the bill may need revision at the 
hands of the committee. It was introduced with the idea of simply 
presenting the thought back of it, rather than of serving as an exact 
form in which that thought should find expression. I am inclined 
to think there may be some need of making more detailed provision 
touching the method of the erection of the monument. If this monu- 
ment is to be built, now is the time to do it. As has been well said, 
other memorials can wait; in the deep sense, this can not. If the 
country is to erect this, it is fitting it should be erected at a time when, 
though only a minority, still a large minority of those who bore the 
brunt of that great war may be participants in the celebration of the 
peace that we believe will be everlasting and which this monument 
will commemorate. 

On behalf of the gentlemen here, I thank the committee for their 
attention. 

(Thereupon the committee adjourned.) 



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